WPA Scientific Sections 2020‐2023: from strengthened backbone to motor of innovation
Authors: Thomas G. Schulze
Journal: World Psychiatry (2023)

When the 145 WPA Member Societies will meet in Vienna, Austria in September/October 2023 for the 23rd World Congress of Psychiatry, they will also convene for the WPA General Assembly, taking place every three years. This Assembly, the Association's highest decision-making body, will vote on a multitude of motions brought to the floor and meant to govern the Association for the next triennium. Reflecting on what has been achieved in the prior three years, the Assembly will decide on the future overall course and plan of action. A large part of this decision-making will be dedicated to the work of WPA Scientific Sections. I was elected WPA Secretary for Scientific Sections by the 2017 General Assembly in Berlin for two terms, the 2017-2020 and the 2020-2023 triennia. These two triennia have seen a consolidation of the activities of the Sections: they have proven to be true to their calling, that is, being the Association's scientific backbone1-8. In addition to this, over the past six years, the WPA has made a variety of logistic and technical efforts to improve and streamline the communication of the various Sections with each other and with the Association's other bodies. This has helped spur a high number of intersectional activities, such as symposia at WPA congresses, research projects, and publications. The past two triennia have seen two major intersectional thematic conferences: that on "Psychological Trauma: Global Burden on Mental and Physical Health", held virtually in December 2020, and that on "New Horizons in Psychiatric Practice: Creative Ideas and Innovative Interventions", taking place in Malta in November 2022. These two conferences introduced a truly novel concept, as they were not only thematic by honing in on a specific scientific topic, but also by making the intersectional aspect a theme in and of itself. Requiring symposia to be submitted by at least two Scientific Sections helped foster an interdisciplinary spirit benefiting the work of the individual Sections and of the WPA as a whole. Special issues on trauma9 and stress10, published in collaboration with the British Journal of Psychiatry family of journals, have been another testament to the collaborative intersectional spirit. This spirit is truly palpable among the well over 100 members of WPA's Section of Early Career Psychiatrists. Over the past two triennia, the leadership of this Section has been able to organize numerous symposia, as well as formal and informal gatherings at WPA congresses, and a large number of standalone activities all over the globe, with the recently established WPA Exchange Program being a signature project11. Furthermore, at our recommendation, the WPA Executive Committee bolstered its commitment to early career investigators in low- and middle-income countries by introducing the Education, Science, Publication, and Research Initiative (ESPRI), aimed at jumpstarting scientific projects in those countries12, 13. Finally, the past triennium has seen a major uptick in WPA's direct research involvement, as the Association has been awarded principal investigator status in two large European Union Horizon research grants: the PSY-PGx Consortium, focusing on the implementation of pharmacogenetics in psychiatry (www.psy-pgx.org/PSY-PGx), and the Psych-STRATA network, aimed at the identification of biological and clinical markers predicting resistance to pharmacological treatment approaches. For the two projects combined, the WPA will be receiving more than 300,000 US$ over the next five years, which will be used to conceptualize and implement a framework for education and dissemination for the two research consortia. This research work will be jointly coordinated by the Executive Committee and several Sections in whose remit the research involved falls. In summary, the last two triennia have seen a consolidation of the Sections as the scientific backbone of the WPA. They have served as the mediators and multiplicators of the Association's educational and scientific mission and have taken it to all corners of the world14, 15. Having vetted the Sections for their activities and effective contribution to WPA's Action Plan and having put in place measures to increase their global diversity, the Association can now count not only on a fortified backbone but on a veritable motor of innovation in psychiatric research, education and care for years to come.